About me
My name is Brian, I am 25 years old and have a recurrent depressive disorder and dysthymia, which means a mood depressed for years. My blog – Pickaway Helps is about everyday life with the disease. In addition, I would like to enlighten, clear up stubborn prejudices and show that despite all the difficulties, a humorous view of things is still possible in many situations.
In autumn 2015 I went into therapy for the first time.
2015 was a year of change. I was enrolled at the University of Bremen and now studied Communication and Media Sciences and German only passively. This means that although I attended a few more seminars to keep up the semblance, it was no longer enough for more. In retrospect, I can no longer say exactly how conscious I really was of my non-action – the fact is, however, that for the first time I did not write a paper without informing the lecturer. For my grade this meant: 5,0! And that, although I was usually very conscientious.
Actually, this was the secret starting shot for what followed. I think this was the first time I seriously considered the need for change. Then everything happened relatively quickly: I spoke to my family doctor about my current situation for the first time and went home with a referral for a day-care stay in a day clinic. Before I could fall into my usual lethargy, I took advantage of the proud feeling of having taken a small step and promptly called the clinic and had myself put on the waiting list.
A day inpatient stay means that the patients go to the clinic from Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and take advantage of various therapy options, such as talk therapy (individual and group therapy), movement and art therapy, Nordic walking, mindfulness training, etc. The patients are also treated in the clinic from Monday to Friday.
On average, a stay in the day clinic lasts 6 – 8 weeks, but this can vary from person to person. I stayed there for a total of 11 weeks.
Today I can say that the stay in the clinic was the best decision I could have made – because there I could learn a lot about the illness and about myself, I met great people, made friends and got help, which I really needed urgently.
Outpatient psychiatric nursing service and deep psychological therapy as a further step after the day clinic.
After my stay at the clinic, I received four months of support from the outpatient psychiatric nursing service of the Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund (ASB). This meant that I received support three times a week for two hours each from specialist home nurses in order to structure my everyday life and approach a regular daily routine. That ranged from relieving conversations and assistance about visits to the authorities, walks or drawing up a weekly plan.
In addition, to this day I receive a weekly therapy based on depth psychology, which basically deals with inner conflicts and unconscious experiences and behaviour. Along with behavioural therapy and analytical psychotherapy, it is one of the most common therapy methods. With her help, I am currently creating tasks that fill my everyday life and at the same time are not too stressful or overstraining. This blog links two important points for me: Creative writing as something I like to do and the awareness of inner conflicts and thoughts.
If you have questions about day clinics, APP or other things, you are welcome to send them to me in the form of a comment or a personal mail.